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my digimon partner
digimon & dæmonism
you know how in the last episode of 02, the dark seed children all get their own digimon partners just by believing in their dreams? i’m here to tell you that you can, too!
to explain how, i’ll have to tell you the story of how i met my own digimon partner. back when i was watching through 02 and tamers for the first time on jetix, i happened to also read the “his dark materials” series of books by phillip pullman. for those who aren’t already familiar with them, the characters in these books have something called “dæmons” (pronounced like demons), which are thought to be their souls outside their bodies in the form of a shapeshifting animal companion that eventually settles into a single form that defines their personality. obviously, this concept jives really well with digimon partners, especially in the adventureverse. digimon, like dæmons, are a reflection of their partner’s personality, a bonded animal companion that shares a special mental and emotional connection with them. they are, essentially, the children’s souls, or at least a piece of them, and they need each other to survive and grow. many years after i had already made this connection, i found out that director of digimon adventure & 02 himself, hiroyuki kakudou, had also realized it, and even spoke of how the two concepts intertwine on his blog.
"and so, since the digimon in digimon adventure’s world are a fragment of their partner’s souls, sometimes their personalities are similar, and sometimes it’s the exact opposite, but they will never negate what their partners do. well, there’s another work out there where the soul appears in the form of an animal that accompanies you and shifts appearance depending on the person’s growth. that would be northern lights from the his dark materials series, which recently was adapted into a movie. it had been published in its original country several years earlier, but it was not published in japan until november 1999. so imagine my surprise when i read northern lights after finishing 02! moreover, in the sequel the subtle knife, there was a tool for opening a gate into a different world, and i thought, wow, that works like the d3 in 02! i bought the final book, but i haven’t read it yet. i recommend it to digimon adventure fans."
- hiroyuki kakudou, director of digimon adventure & 02,
in a blog post from 2018, translated by the digi-lab
this concept captured my imagination so thoroughly as a child that i wished for nothing more than to have a partner of my own, so i went searching online for some way to make them real. that’s when i stumbled across some websites where people claimed to have met their own partners by simply developing a dialogue in their head and imagining a form to go with it, visualizing them in the real world. it’s sort of like having an imaginary friend, but with a more dedicated purpose of helping you sort out your thoughts and analyze yourself psychologically, as well as just some internal mental support to get you through the day and have a little fun along the way. i tried it out myself, and soon met my own digimon partner, a patamon, at the age of 13!
custom art of my partner by liecomj!
my partner has since become a huge part of my life. i’ve know him for so long that i can talk to and visualize him every day without having to put forth any effort. watching the last episode of 02, and even the beginning of tamers when takato creates his own digimon partner, always makes me emotional because i did that too!! i realized my dream of being a chosen child with just a little bit of belief and imagination. i would highly encourage the dæmonism method to anyone who wants to have one, too. you can read more about it here on my favorite dæmon website! (now unfortunately on wayback machine but should still mostly all work)
as for finding out which digimon your partner is, i'd recommend starting out with a favorite child level (rookie) digimon or one that you may have already considered your partner, and if it doesn't feel right when you start visualizing, try out others until you find one you like! once you have a base form, then you can go searching for a suitable evolution line, and i recommend wikimon for that! just look up your partner's form and go clicking around the many possible options for evolutions until you find something you like. if you can't get one that quite fits, no worries, any digimon can basically turn into any other digimon and there's no need to make your digimon's line "canon." as long as it feels good to you, that's all that matters!
in the case of my patamon, he wanted to appear as a digimon and this form just stuck. i don't think i would have particularly chosen it for myself, but now i can't imagine having anything else for a partner! from there, we researched and came up with a cool evolution line that fits us perfectly. he mostly stays a patamon, but he can evolve or de-volve at will to fit the situation. we also made up a crest and digivice for ourselves for fun! check them out below!
crest of individuality / glow-in-the-dark D-3
baby 1: puttimon
puttimon is patamon's baby 1 (fresh) form! when he appeared as patamon we knew immediately that we weren't going to follow the same line as takeru's patamon, so we might as well choose alternate baby forms too, and fell in love with these little baby angels! he doesn't devolve much, but when he does it's fun to be able to hold him in one hand!baby 2: cupimon
cupimon is patamon's baby 2 (in-training) form! he doesn't take this one too much either, but isn't it just the cutest thing? the funniest part about it is that it's actually larger than his evolved patamon form -- sometimes digimon are weird like that! i think we came across it before puttimon and just loved how it looked and the two went perfectly together as de-evolutions for patamon.
child: patamon
patamon prefers to stay in his child (rookie) form like most digimon partners in the show. he's smaller than takeru's patamon, with larger wings that he keeps folded along his back when they're not in use rather than having them stick straight up. these proportions allow him to fly really well, and it's fun to watch him fly alongside me in my daily life, or settle on my head or shoulder for a ride. aside from flying, his favorite thing to do is sing!adult: reppamon
reppamon is patamon's adult (champion) form! since his animal form would be an arctic fox, we decided on a fox-based evolution line for him starting with this one. in reppamon's lore, the fox doesn't get along well with the tail, which has a mind of its own. we imagine that my reppamon's tail is overzealously protective of me and always ready to fight, which would sometimes cause trouble for us if we were in the digital world.
perfect: chirinmon
chirinmon is patamon's perfect (ultimate) form! i extremely love HORSES so i was thrilled to find out that reppamon can evolve into this gorgeous kirin digimon, making it the obvious pick for a perfect evolution. it's not so practical for visualizing in the real world, being so big, but i spend a lot of time riding on his back in our headspace! this would be the form we would use for travel in the digital world.ultimate: mitamamon
originally we were using kentaurosmon as patamon's ultimate (mega) form, just assuming we'd always biomerge to get to it in the digital world, but when mitamamon was revealed last year, the connection was instantaneous and we adopted it as patamon's natural final evolution, without merging with me. mitamamon has the most amazing way of moving around, imagine sisu in "raya and the last dragon" when she swims through the air and walks on the rain, but using the flaming wheels instead.
biomerge: kentaurosmon
this is the digimon patamon and i would combine into if we used biomerge/matrix evolution! i think it's a nice choice for a biomerge because of a centaur's nature of being part human and part animal, and it also allows me to finally realize my dream of becoming a horse. xD i think biomerge evolution is one of the most beautiful and emotional things in the show, and i wish we could really do it in real life!armor: siesamon x
we instantly fell in love with the design of this digimon and wanted to put it somewhere in patamon's evolution line. since we were coming up with a design for our personal crest at the time we first saw it, we decided to base it on this digimon and make it patamon's armor form with a digimental to match! it has a lot of elements in it that fit my patamon's aesthetics and we think it makes a great armor digimon.
click here to see my collection of patamon plushies!
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